10 funny things kids say to avoid room cleaning

Oh…I am pretty sure many of us can write an entire book (with chapters and all) about funny things kids say. Some things are silly, some are weird and some are just pure wisdom. Today I will be sharing few of each. And it’s about specific subject. Room cleaning.

While some may call this whining, complaining and just being lazy I call this funny things kids say. It’s all how you look at it.

Here is how it all started:

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The video is now scripted and prepped a little of course but the original song sounded just like that, if not better. I will be sorry for ages for not grabbing a camera at that very moment.

Even though we don’t buy toys for our kids anymore (you can find more about it here) they still somehow magically appear at our house. (I blame magicians grandma and grandpa). And my daughter’s room is still messy.

It gets messy with toys, clothes (I am afraid to count how many times she changes during the day) and random things she plays (or doesn’t) with.

But I am not too worried about it. I haven’t met many kids in my life who would be excited about cleaning their rooms.

This situation got me thinking of all the reasons kids come up in order no to clean the room. Boy, they are good sales people with some pretty awesome negotiation skills. I wish I would be this good when buying a car.

So here it is. These are the funny things my daughter and my little brother said when asked to clean their rooms.

1. “I need to go to the bathroom.”

Goes and stays there for longer than usual (hoping for mom to clean the room). This was the best trick my baby brother did when he was growing up. He would do this trick on any chore that was given to him. I remember at one point (before me and my mom cracked his smart code) my parents were worried about his health because he was going to the bathroom a lot and spend there long time. The truth came out and it was pretty ugly.

Says my 5 year old daughter. As a mother who is always concerned about healthy growth of my children I always fall for this and rush to the kitchen to prepare a snack or a meal and all room cleaning thing is forgotten. At least for a short time. Until the next snack time.

And then she would start a whole design course and would try to prove me that the mess is actually the new cool room ‘gig’ going one right now. I really need to step up my negotiation skills, because my 5 year old nails it to the bottom. And most of the time she does have a pretty good point. Even about having a messy room.

5. “I don’t want to clean it”.

It’s a classic one and not really that funny, unless you take their pretty desperate mimic in consideration and add some begging, bribing, blaming to it. Oh and don’t forget the top phrase: “You are my mom, you have to help me.”

Aaaand I don’t. That’s where it gets really funny. At least to me. (I swear I am not that mean).

6. “Did you check dad’s closet? How come his closet is messy and mine needs to be cleaned?”

That’s a killer one. And I will admit, I can never win this argument. There is only a number of things mom can supervise. Dad’s closet not included.

7. “I can’t find my favorite (which most of the time are non existing) shoes.”

And then she keeps looking for them so intensely, I end up helping her look. By picking stuff out the way of course (which is part of the cleaning). Sucker! She gets me again.

8. “My fingers are too short to clean”.

Blaming her body parts not being made for cleaning.Classic. Actually it’s funnier when she demonstrates her short fingers and how she can’t (or can, to her obvious surprise) pick up toys. It’s hilarious!

9. “Can we get a second mommy?You know the one that LIKES cleaning rooms.”

I was speechless when I first heard it. But then the more I thought about this fantasy my child was having, I got to like this more and more. I am even considering framing this phrase in my living room.

P.S. This “negotiation” leads to nowhere. Don’t worry. 🙂

10. “Can we donate?”

This is my favorite, but pretty desperate choice for my daughter. I can see the sneaky side in it (she knows that it will just be grabbing everything and putting in a big bag without needing to put everything away in places where everything belongs), but the end result is nice and brilliant.

11. Sofia: “Mommy, have you ever seen princess clean her room”?

Me: In matter of fact I did. It was last week and her name was Sofia. She did pretty good job.

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Follow me along this Clean your room journey, because I will be sharing some tips on how “I cracked the clean your room code” with no drama and no fuss involved.

My son ( age 11 ) – who I know will grow up to be a lawyer the way he likes to argue and prove his point – said ” You said it was my room and that I could decorate it anyway I wished. This is how I want it. Are you now saying that it is NOT my room? Are you going back on what you said??”